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Obama's Solid, But Uninspiring, Speech
Richard Cohen
"There've been times that I thought I couldn't last for long/But
now I think I'm able to carry on/It's been a long time coming/But I
know a change is gonna come."
Sam Cooke, the great R&B singer, wrote those words in 1963 following a visit to a civil rights event in what was then Jim Crow North Carolina. Thursday evening, an era and more than a thousand miles away, Barack Obama echoed Cooke. "America, this is one of those moments," Obama said. "I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming." He then mentioned health care.
If you're sick, nothing is as important as health care -- so I don't knock it. But the subject is prosaic, and it was just one car in a long train of programs designed to rebut the charge that Obama's slogan -- "Change!" -- is political cotton candy. Obama went on and on: taxes and schooling, outsourcing and Social Security, energy and drilling, wind power and solar power, and ... etc. It was good. It was necessary, but it was poetry for auditors. There's a difference between interesting and inspirational.
In contrast, Cooke's lyric about change was written to evoke the civil rights struggle. It was music about music. It was purportedly written in response to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In the Wind," which asked, "How many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free?" Thursday, the answer came in a shower of fireworks and tears -- a momentous event, a speech that did not do it justice.
The Cooke song came at me by surprise. It is on my iPod, but I had hit "shuffle" and so I had no idea what was coming next. I was exercising, and all of sudden, on the day an African-American took command of the Democratic Party and staked a claim to the White House, the song came on. I stopped. I was struck. I played the song over and over. It was still in my mind when Obama spoke.
Something about Obama's speeches banishes music. This one lacked it. The speech never soared and it never moved. It didn't have pacing, pulse or a sense of the moment. Even the line that should have been evocative of Cooke and the civil rights movement -- of Montgomery and Selma and Memphis, of capricious murder and senseless humiliation, of slavery and penury and the doffing of caps, of being called a "boy" when you were a man and "girl" when you were a woman, of coming in on Thursdays to clean, of sitting in the balcony, of segregated water fountains and state parks and, of course, school -- went by virtually unnoticed.
Maybe that was intended. Barack Obama must remain a black man who happens to be running for president and not a black candidate. Maybe it was intended because Obama cannot be culturally black, otherwise white and Hispanic America would resent that. Maybe it was intended because television is the cool medium and one must be cool. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
A friend of Obama's suggested recently that he tell the story more often of his mother. She was a remarkable woman -- so strong, so principled, so smart, so committed to her children. She was without prejudice, open to the world and embracing of it. Obama replied that he had to be careful. He might go to pieces.
We have to honor deep hurts and mourning that never ends. John McCain sometimes talks about his POW days as if it all happened to someone else. Obama apparently has his own emotional scar tissue. He's entitled. Being a mixed-race kid of a single mom is an uplifting story to the listener but painful to the teller. Not everything needs to be said.
Still, for whatever reason, the tear I got from Cooke I did not get from Obama. History passed like New Year's -- a tick on the clock but, somehow, everything remained the same. A great speaker delivered a good speech.
"I was born by the river in a little tent/And just like the river, I've been running ever since/It's been a long time coming/But I know a change is gonna come."
Sam Cooke, rest in peace. It's here.
========
Richard Cohen's e-mail address is cohenr@washpost.com
(c) 2008, Washington Post Writers Group
This news arrived on: 08/30/2008
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Posted Comments:
09-11-2008 15:04
What the Heck... wrote:
Did you watch that speech...?
Definitely the most limited analysis and poorly written column of yours I have ever read, Richard. This speech was superb. My favorite lines from the speech (pure poetry):
"I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters."
Go Barack!
"I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters."
Go Barack!
09-06-2008 17:21
msattitude69 wrote:
Sad
I also thought the speech was empty and lacked obama's usual great performances. It was sad to hear everyone saying what a wonderful speech it was. All he did was stand up there and say what America is all about, the fact that most people have forgotten that is scary. Additionally with all the fanfare the speech did not deliver nor did it honor the history being made that night.
09-01-2008 23:49
Pittbull wrote:
Liberal nonsense
Greg van Hee: Every survey for the last 30 years shows the media favoring democrats at about an 87 percent rate which is about the same rate that they identify themselves as democrats. It's hilarious to hear democrats whine about poor Obama's treatment in the media when (except for Fox) they practically wear his campaign buttons on the air.
Gummoboy: Your message seems to be Vote Obama! He's Black! If you don't, your a racist & if he doesn't win, America is a racist country.
Obama's on record to deny babies who survive an abortion medical treatment. ANYONE who does that is a monster. Even Hillary opposed him on that.
Tire gauges are not an energy policy.
Denying union members the secret ballot in their elections is a facist position.
Raising taxes on oil companies will only mean that they pass it on to us! Not drilling will only make prices go even higher & send more American money into the coffers of oil rich enemis like Russia & the Muslim Arabs.
I could critize Obama foreever on SPECIFICS. You guys have only talking points (Change! CHange! Hope!) & emotion. Democrats don't KNOW anything which is why they are democrats.
One last fact: SOCIALISM DOESN't WORK! IT NEVER HAS & NEVER WILL. EVEN IF OBAMA DOES IT!
Gummoboy: Your message seems to be Vote Obama! He's Black! If you don't, your a racist & if he doesn't win, America is a racist country.
Obama's on record to deny babies who survive an abortion medical treatment. ANYONE who does that is a monster. Even Hillary opposed him on that.
Tire gauges are not an energy policy.
Denying union members the secret ballot in their elections is a facist position.
Raising taxes on oil companies will only mean that they pass it on to us! Not drilling will only make prices go even higher & send more American money into the coffers of oil rich enemis like Russia & the Muslim Arabs.
I could critize Obama foreever on SPECIFICS. You guys have only talking points (Change! CHange! Hope!) & emotion. Democrats don't KNOW anything which is why they are democrats.
One last fact: SOCIALISM DOESN't WORK! IT NEVER HAS & NEVER WILL. EVEN IF OBAMA DOES IT!
09-01-2008 23:49
Pittbull wrote:
Liberal nonsense
Greg van Hee: Every survey for the last 30 years shows the media favoring democrats at about an 87 percent rate which is about the same rate that they identify themselves as democrats. It's hilarious to hear democrats whine about poor Obama's treatment in the media when (except for Fox) they practically wear his campaign buttons on the air.
Gummoboy: Your message seems to be Vote Obama! He's Black! If you don't, your a racist & if he doesn't win, America is a racist country.
Obama's on record to deny babies who survive an abortion medical treatment. ANYONE who does that is a monster. Even Hillary opposed him on that.
Tire gauges are not an energy policy.
Denying union members the secret ballot in their elections is a facist position.
Raising taxes on oil companies will only mean that they pass it on to us! Not drilling will only make prices go even higher & send more American money into the coffers of oil rich enemis like Russia & the Muslim Arabs.
I could critize Obama foreever on SPECIFICS. You guys have only talking points (Change! CHange! Hope!) & emotion. Democrats don't KNOW anything which is why they are democrats.
One last fact: SOCIALISM DOESN't WORK! IT NEVER HAS & NEVER WILL. EVEN IF OBAMA DOES IT!
Gummoboy: Your message seems to be Vote Obama! He's Black! If you don't, your a racist & if he doesn't win, America is a racist country.
Obama's on record to deny babies who survive an abortion medical treatment. ANYONE who does that is a monster. Even Hillary opposed him on that.
Tire gauges are not an energy policy.
Denying union members the secret ballot in their elections is a facist position.
Raising taxes on oil companies will only mean that they pass it on to us! Not drilling will only make prices go even higher & send more American money into the coffers of oil rich enemis like Russia & the Muslim Arabs.
I could critize Obama foreever on SPECIFICS. You guys have only talking points (Change! CHange! Hope!) & emotion. Democrats don't KNOW anything which is why they are democrats.
One last fact: SOCIALISM DOESN't WORK! IT NEVER HAS & NEVER WILL. EVEN IF OBAMA DOES IT!
09-01-2008 22:43
gumboboy wrote:
What we must realize is that DNC Presidential Nominee Barak Obama had an effect on everyone who listened to that speech, even the conservatives who were trying to dissect his words to tear him apart. There are conservatives in the DNC too. People who don't seem to be embracing the change that has swept over the democratic party. So, eventhough the speech wasn't musical, I feel that Mr. Obama played the right toon, even if he doesn't win the election, he has given his opponents very little to criticize him on, and when all the dust settles America will have to look at herself in the mirror and realize that racism is more of a problem than we realize.
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